Renee Bruhl

Location Last Seen: Indiana State Park in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana

Physical Description

** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.

Date of Birth: 1947

Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Female

Height at Time of Disappearance: 5'9

Weight at Time of Disappearance: 120-150 lbs

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Hazel

Alias(s) / Nickname(s): Bruhl's maiden name is "Slunecko.&quot

Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Dentals: Not available

Fingerprints: Not available

DNA: Not available

Clothing & Personal Items

Clothing: Brown bathing suit with a pattern of green flowers and gold leaves

Jewelry: Unknown

Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance

Bruhl and two of her friends, Patricia Blough and Ann Miller, disappeared
from the Indiana State Park in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana on July 2, 1966. The women arrived at the Indiana Dunes State Park at approximately
10:00 AM. Miller parked in the park's lot and the women hiked to a spot approximately 100 yards from the Lake Michigan shoreline.
A couple reported seeing the women leave their belongings on the beach at approximately 12:00 and enter the lake together. The
witnesses saw them speaking to an unidentified man operating a 14 - 16 foot-long white boat with a blue interior and and outboard
motor sometime afterward. The couple reported their observations to a park ranger around dusk when they noticed that the women's
belongings were still sitting unclaimed on the beach. The witnesses stated that the women went aboard the boat and headed west with
the driver.

The park rangers soon learned that missing persons' reports had been filed for Blough, Miller and Bruhl over the weekend in Illinois
by their families. The rangers began investigating the park and located Miller's Buick in the parking lot. Her car keys had been
located with her belongings and some items of the women's clothing and other personal effects were still inside the vehicle. The park
rangers contacted other law enforcement agencies, including the United States Coast Guard. A search for the missing women was initiated
on July 5, three days after the women disappeared.

More witnesses began substantiating the initial reports that the women entered a white boat operated by an unidentified man. Later
accounts described the male as in his early twenties with a tanned complexion and dark, wavy hair. He was wearing a beach jacket at the
time. A visitor was filming home movies at the state park on July 2 and offered his reels to investigators. The search was immediately
narrowed to two boats once authorities viewed the footage. One was a fiberglass 16 - 18-foot long trimaran runabout with a three-hulled
design, which was operated by a man fitting the description of the unidentified driver. Three females matching the missing women were
seen aboard the smaller boat in the footage. The second boat identified was a 26 - 28-foot Trojan cabin cruiser with three men
aboard along with three women. The cabin cruiser was seen at approximately 15:00, three hours after the women entered the smaller vessel.
Investigators believe that the women may have been dropped off on the beach by the driver of the smaller boat while he drove back to
retrieve two male friends and the cabin cruiser. Blough, Miller and Bruhl were reportedly seen eating and walking along the sand dunes
after this time. They were approached by another unidentified man, who accompanied them on to the cabin cruiser. Witnesses stated that
the cabin cruiser was equipped with a radio / telephone antenna, but apparently did not have a name printed on its stern. This final
sighting has never been confirmed, but is considered reliable by authorities. Investigators began researching the women's backgrounds
in an attempt to discover if their disappearances were voluntary. Authorities found that there may have been problems in Bruhl's marriage,
though her family denied it. All three women were horse enthusiasts, Blough and Miller met while boarding their horses at the same Illinois
stable. Miller was employed as a horse exerciser at Oak Brook Polo Club at the time she vanished. She and Blough were associated
with men who had criminal backgrounds in the horse market. Blough was reportedly having problems with 'horse syndicate people' in the spring
and summer of 1966. Drowning was considered a possibility in the disappearances, but unlikely. The boats they were reportedly seen boarding
on July 2, 1966 have never been located, nor have the unidentified men spotted on the vessels been seen again.
The Indiana Dunes State Park where Blough, Miller and Bruhl were last seen is now called the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.